These posts were about my experience as a volunteer in the Peace Corps, but now as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV).

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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Like Father, Like Son

Last weekend I spent some time on Mt Pulag, the third highest mountain in
the Philippines, but more on that below. Before I left for Mt Pulag, I told my
Dad, living in the U.S. to take care of his foot because he has a cyst and now
he'll have an MRI on it next week. However, he kept telling everybody and me that
it was nothing even though he had to use a cane for a few days and was limping pretty
badly according to witnesses.This stubbornness
reminds me of my own ascending up Mt Pulag last week.

We hiked at night and it was a terrific hike, the stars were out, all of us
hiking together in the cold, but I slipped on one of the wet rocks while hiking.
Although I didn't fall, my ankle felt like it did. Next, guess what happened.
Yep, you guessed it, I kept walking. I thought I would walk it off. When our
group took a break, I kept moving my ankle thinking stretching it in circles
would cure it and I would turn into self-acclaimed Dr. Steve. Nope. As we
ascended I did consider stopping and not continuing, but to hike all that way
and not go to the top, I had to go for it.Once we made it to the top, we stayed there for 2 hours.It was around 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5
degrees Celsius), but it felt like zero considering the temperature I’ve been
accustomed to in Olongapo City is the mid-90s.After a while all the volunteers bundled our bodies together for warmth
to no avail, it was still cold.However,
the sun started to peek out and above is what it looked like, the pic below is what it looked like 20 minutes later.

Yes, those are clouds

The hike down was something I wasn’t looking forward to for obvious reasons
and also, the view from the top was breathtaking.We were above the clouds, and even had a cup
of coffee on top before going down from one of our members who brought his big
gas stove.As I started to go down, I
just thought to myself one step at a time and at first I was doing well.Our group had gotten to what I thought was
the halfway point in no time.Then, we
started back down and I started to feel the pain in my ankle more.Next, we arrived at another rest stop to
have breakfast and I got to use my backpacker stove for the first time in the
Philippines to make coffee and tea.After that I took off my barefoot sandal and noticed the swelling.(Yes, I hiked in these thinking if I could
run down the street block and climb a small mountain, I could climb Mt Pulag in
these, but no cigar.These particular
barefoot sandals aren’t good on rocks for me.)The one thing I had going for me was that there was no discoloration on
my ankle.One person wrapped
a bandage around my ankle and gave me a stick to walk with along with pain reliever.After breakfast we had a longer walk than I
thought heading back down to the beginning.Some of the areas we walked down I didn’t even remember from the night
before.

Moving on, I took one last shot of the scenery I couldn’t see in the dark (to the left). Finally, we got back to the jeep and I had my friend re-wrap the bandage
because it was wrapped too tight on the trail.I tried to sleep, but going down the hill was bumpy, which made it
impossible to sleep.Once I got back to
La Trinidad, I got plenty of rest.

As for my father, we skyped the other day and he criticized my decision to
wear the barefoot sandals and I the same to him for not seeing a doctor soon
enough.I hate to admit, but I can relate to
his stubbornness, but I think all of us are a little stubborn at one point or
another and will find a way to procrastinate our problem until we can’t delay
no more.Next hike, I will definitely be
hiking in boots. As for my Dad, I only hope he reacts faster next time. Ingat na.